Key Preview Takeaways:
- The remake looks good, but not necessarily better than the 2D original it updates.
- It’s got new content to add on to what’s already here, along with an entire other Rayman game bundled with it.
- It still plays really well as a pure platformer.
I’m going to get my most subjective opinion out of the way here first, before I tell you about my experience actually playing Rayman Legends Retold, the just-delayed remake of 2013’s absolutely stellar 2D platformer. Here goes: Despite being 13 years newer, I don’t think this 2.5D remake looks any better than the gorgeous 2D original… which seems like something that, if you ask me, shouldn’t be up for debate if you’re going to remake a game. And as such, I’m not sure how necessary this remake is. Our own Michael Higham arrived at the same opinion after he did our first preview.
But that’s not to speak ill of what is being presented in Rayman Legends Retold. It looks good, to be explicitly clear, regardless of whether or not you’ve ever seen the 2D original, and even better, it still plays fantastically well. This is a platformer that has aged quite well in the gameplay department – at least, based on the three hours I played of Retold recently, combined with the fact that I hadn’t touched Legends since it originally released one Grand Theft Auto ago.
That being said, based on what I’ve played so far, it does nicely integrate some new content with the old. It’s got new musical levels, where you’re essentially platforming to the beat of a song (I played the “Macarena” stage). It’s also got new stages and a revamped Kung Foot mode. Heck, Ubisoft is even throwing in the entirety of Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition as a sweetener with the standard, $40 version of Retold.
If you’ve played a Rayman platformer before then you’ve probably read all you need to at this point, but if you’re new to the series, Rayman Legends Retold is a pure side-scrolling (mostly) platformer where, not unlike in Mario’s 2D platforming adventures, you can absorb at most one hit (read: any contact whatsoever) from an enemy before dying and resetting to the most recent checkpoint. Although I should note that Rayman Legends Retold does its very best to avoid frustration, as there are optional “golden hearts” you can pick up; they appear when you respawn after dying a few times in a row at the same point. And if the game still detects you banging your head against the proverbial wall, you have the option to invoke the “Fairy Blessing” that puts our limbless hero in a protective bubble and lets you literally float right by whatever challenge you’re currently frustrated with.
Each hub area, meanwhile, has a unique theme, and the variety was both impressive and appreciated. I started my hands-on in a food-themed zone called “Spoiled Rotten” where I was jumping off giant cucumbers and tomatoes and occasionally being shrunk down to the size of an ant through carefully placed trumpets that let me navigate the innards of a watermelon, as one example. The “What the Duck” stage here was marked by everything being made of sweets and pastries, and here I had a hungry flying helper named Murphy who would zip around in specific patterns near certain bits of culinary geometry, leaving me to press LB or Y to have him eat through whatever he passed through. These were often enjoyable platforming challenges unto themselves, as I had to figure out how to navigate my way through the freshly eaten spots unscathed before the cakey walls regenerated a few moments later.
I played one boss fight in a completely different world against a giant Luchadore, too, which mixed things up with timed attacks and big, bold setpieces. Pretty standard platforming fare, but really well-executed. And I suppose that’s where I landed after my few hours with Rayman Legends Retold. It’s not breaking any new ground – not visually and not gameplay-wise, not that it should be expected to since it’s a remake, after all – but it is a clean remake chock-full of content both new and old at a pretty nice value. It might be of particular interest to the Switch 2 crowd that isn’t getting the GTA 6 meteor landing in their lives this Fall (particularly in light of a new 3D Mario platformer’s continued absence and Super Mario Bros. Wonder being a couple years old now), and/or to the younger crowd that hasn’t played the series before. Here’s hoping it leads to a brand-new Rayman adventure sooner rather than later.
While you’re here, check out these recent previews of other big upcoming games we’ve checked out recently!
Ryan McCaffrey
Executive Editor
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Next-Gen Console Watch. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.